Will You Wrap Your Arms Around Me As I'm Falling?
by Snow White Suicide
Summary: [AU] They are the best and most feared criminals in Russia, but not of their own free will. They are promised to get their freedom after this one last mission, but then everything goes wrong. [KaixRei, sort of TalaxRei] Yaoi.
1. Reach For the Sky

A/N: Here it is, my new story! I personally like the idea of this :). And I hope you'll like too, let me know. Constructive criticism is welcome.

This fic has many genres, some of them being: supernatural, angst, romance, some humour and some tragedy.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Beyblade characters.

Warnings: Yaoi, OOC:ness.

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A soft, rhythmical tapping sound was heard as fingers hidden in black gloves kept touching a stone surface. A boy that appeared to be at the age of seventeen was leaning against a high stone wall in what seemed like very casual way. So it seemed. Actually he was very alert. Cutting wind blew past him but he didn't allow himself to shiver no matter how cold he was. He gazed up at the night sky. Apart from the small spots, known as stars, it was all dark. Even the moon was hiding behind a dark cloud.

The boy took a glance at his wristwatch, frowning. '_He's taking too long,_' he thought as he glanced up at the wall, pondering whether he should go after his partner. He decided to wait for a few more minutes.

Only a few seconds later something landed smoothly beside the boy, making a soft thump once contacting the ground. Another young boy, sixteen years of age, straightened up and turned to look at the older one. He met a pair of piercing black eyes glaring down at him.

"What took you so long?" the taller boy demanded coldly.

The younger one decided to ignore the tone of his partner's voice, "Bloodhounds," he said calmly, receiving a raised eyebrow from the other boy.

"Are you hurt, Rei?" the older boy asked while letting his eyes scan the other boy from top to toe. He was dressed in a pair of black baggy pants and a black turtleneck shirt with black gloves and a cap. He had his long ebony hair stuffed inside of his shirt and he also had black contact lenses to make his identification more difficult if gotten caught.

The younger boy chuckled slightly, "No, I just hate dogs."

The taller boy rolled his eyes, "Did you get it?"

"Yes," Rei replied, tapping his pocket, "Should we–" he was cut off by his partner's hand covering his mouth.

"Shh," the older boy hissed, pulling the other deeper into the shadows, "they are coming back." They watched quietly as a big black car drove past them, slowing down in front of the huge steel gates, waiting for them to slide open. Then it drove in, letting the gates slide close.

The two figures in the shadows stayed quiet and still for a few moments before the smaller one grabbed the other one's hand, casting a quick glance at him.

"Let's go, Kai," he whispered. He received a nod from his partner and, tightening his hold on his hand, started running towards the woods across the road. The older boy wouldn't have been able to keep up with his friend's speed unless he hadn't been pulled forward.

Once reaching the dark, upright rows of trees, they slowed up a bit, still continuing to run towards their next destination.

Soon they arrived to an old, deserted factory area full of more or less deteriorated buildings and old, now inoperative vehicles. The freezing wind blew into the buildings through broken windows making ghostly sounds in the process. The two boys walked quietly, glancing around furtively, still holding hands.

"Where are they?" the ebony-haired boy whispered, flinching slightly at a sound of a huge rat crawling into a rusty trashcan. He received only a shrug from his partner.

As if ordered, they heard a cold voice coming from behind them, making them spin around to find two boys, not older than themselves, standing a few meters further away from them.

"Ah, the Phoenix and the Tiger," the voice belonged to a tall boy with fiery red hair and ice-blue piercing eyes, "you're late."

Kai decided not to show any signs of his slight irritation on his face, "Yeah? What are you going to do about it?" his voice came coldly. He knew they couldn't do anything to them without orders.

The red-haired boy chuckled slightly while the other one beside him glared at the Phoenix dangerously.

"Don't start to act a smart aleck on us there," the boy with lavender hair and matching eyes warned menacingly enough to make Rei squeeze Kai's hand a little tighter as to let him know that he considered that as a good sign for Kai to stay quiet.

"We brought the documents," the ebony-haired boy told them while sticking his hand into his pocket to take an envelope out.

"Excellent," the redhead said with approval audible in his voice, "bring it to me." Rei let go of Kai's hand and walked over to the other two boys to hand the envelope to the red-haired one. Then he turned around to walk back to his partner's side.

"We have another mission for you," a cold voice belonging to the lavender-haired boy informed while a little smirk played on his lips, "this one you will undertake tomorrow night." Rei noticed himself nodding slightly in acceptance. It wasn't like they had any choice but to obey. As cruel as it sounds, their lives weren't their own.

"What is it?" a colourless voice from beside Rei snapped him out of his thoughts. He turned to look at Kai who still had his emotionless mask on his face.

"You will have this booklet with all the information you need included for you to acquaint yourself with before the gig," the red-haired boy told holding up the said booklet, "and you had better read it carefully for of course you are not allowed to let anything go wrong. This is important."

"Of course, Tala," Kai said venomously. Rei could see he was pissed off.

The boy called Tala smirked, "Geez Kai, you really should change your attitude or it will cost you a lot someday." Kai just clenched his fists, choosing not to say anything.

"Enough with the chatting, we don't have all night," the lavender-haired youth said breaking the well started glaring competition between Tala and Kai.

"Yeah, Bryan is right," Tala handed the booklet to the boy beside him and motioned him to bring it over to Kai. The latter didn't even look at the object before stuffing it into his bag.

"Was that all?" he asked obviously more than ready to take off.

"Well, there is this one little thing more," Tala chuckled, "the Boss has gotten softer or something but he said that if you handle this next mission of yours well, you will get what ever you want," he smirked as he saw Rei's eyes widening slightly. Kai in turn narrowed his eyes a bit, not believing his ears.

"A- Anything?" Rei's question came in a whisper, still loud enough for Tala to hear. They both knew what Kai and Rei wanted the most.

Tala was the one to say it aloud, "You will get your freedom after this mission," he repeated, obviously enjoying the expressions on his hirelings' faces. Kai still wouldn't believe him.

"You're lying," he said poisonously, making the redhead pull an innocent look on his face.

"But Kai, why would I do that?" came Tala's voice softly.

"Because you are a bastard."

"My," Tala smirked, "you're hurting my feelings." Kai chose to stay quiet, for which Rei was really grateful.

"We should go," he said, grabbing Kai's hand in a light grip.

Tala turned to smirk at him, "I agree. See you later." Rei nodded his goodbye and walked off, tugging Kai with him.

On their way home, neither of the two dared to speak. They were too lost in their thoughts. There was too much they couldn't understand. Why were they given such promises? Were they for real? Were they finally able to be free? No, even the thought of it sounded ridiculous. Or did it? They had been slaves for so long they couldn't even imagine how it would be to live their own lives. What if they couldn't do it? Not that they really cared about that kind of things. Anything was better than the way they lived now. The only thing that had kept them going for all these years was the strong love they held for each other.

Rei found himself smiling. He was hardly able to resist the urge to skip a few steps. The neko-jin loosened his grip on Kai's hand and snaked his arm around the boy's slender waist, pressing himself close to his side. Kai smiled down at the smaller boy and in turn wrapped his arm around his shoulders. They continued to walk in a comfortable silence until they were home. There they merely fell onto their bed and immediately fell asleep. They were too exhausted to even take off their clothes before going to bed.

-----

Abrupt ringing of an alarm clock dragged Rei out of his sweet dreamland, excessively early if you asked him. He pulled a pillow tightly onto his ears, trying to ignore the irritating sound. It didn't help though. The ringing just got louder and louder until he found the strength to reach out his hand to smack the clock quiet. Then, pleased with himself, Rei snuggled back into Kai's chest, caressing his neck with his lips. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him.

"Do you have to go to work today?" a sleepy voice asked.

"You know I do," Rei answered and pressed himself tighter against his lover's chest, feeling how the much-welcomed sleep started to take over him again.

A moment later the slowly awakening Kai noticed that Rei's breaths against his chest had gone slow and peaceful, tattling he was asleep again. The slate-haired boy frowned.

"Rei, don't go back to sleep. Now, get up," he said, slightly shaking the boy's shoulder.

"But I'm tired," the younger boy muttered sleepily, starting to fall asleep once more as the shaking stopped.

Kai sighed and sat up, lifting the sleeping boy with him. Sometimes, like now, he found himself wondering why the Chinese boy was always so stubborn when it came to waking up, "Don't make me take you to a cold shower again," he said, making the boy in his arms chuckle slightly.

"You wouldn't dare," Rei whispered, still only faintly awake.

"Oh, I wouldn't?" Kai smirked. He had done it before and was perfectly able to do it again if necessary. A quick glance at the now sleeping neko-jin told him now it was necessary. He carefully gathered the boy's petite form into his arms and stood up, making his way to the bathroom. There he lay Rei down into the bathtub. He looked at the sleeping boy with a smile on his face. Kai decided to give him one more chance. He shook his shoulders gently, "Rei, come on," the only reply he got was a sleepy giggle with no real attempts of waking up.

Kai rolled his eyes, _'Well, he asked for it,'_ he thought before reaching out his hand to turn on the shower. Quickly jumping backwards, he watched his lover shoot up with lightning speed and screaming at the top of his voice as the ice-cold water fell on him.

"Kai! You bastard!" Rei yelled as he jumped out of the bathtub now fully awake. Kai smirked and ran out of the bathroom, closing the door behind him so that Rei was locked inside. "You're going to pay for this, mister," he heard Rei's voice threaten through the door.

A few minutes later Rei came back to the bedroom only a towel hanging loosely on his hips. He threw a glare towards the bed in which Kai had returned after he was sure Rei wouldn't take revenge on him right now.

"Traitor," the ebony-haired boy muttered under his breath, getting a chuckle for an answer from somewhere inside of the huge pile of blankets and pillows.

Quickly Rei dressed himself up for work and went to the kitchen for breakfast. Kai was still lying on the bed but wasn't sleeping anymore. Soon he forced himself up and put a bathrobe on him, wandering into the kitchen. There he found his favourite neko-jin shoving his empty plate into the sink. The boy turned around to glare at the Russian.

"Oh please, you know you love me," Kai said with a smug smirk playing on his lips as the younger boy snorted.

"I wouldn't count on it," Rei said poisonously but walked over to the taller boy to place a soft peck on his lips. Then he walked past him to the hallway to put on his shoes and long, dark brown coat, "I'm going now," he announced as he opened the front door, "don't forget to read the booklet."

"I won't," Kai muttered as he heard the door shut. He walked over to his bag and pulled out the booklet from one of the pockets. Then he dropped himself onto the couch and started reading.

-----

Kai heard a key turn in the lock. He glanced up at a clock on the wall above a big bookshelf. It was already half five p.m. The slate-haired boy stood up and strode to the kitchen.

Meanwhile Rei had gotten in and was now taking off his shoes. He felt like fainting any minute now. He definitely couldn't manage an another seven hour workday after having only five hours of sleep at night. But he knew he wouldn't have any more sleep tonight due to their big, important as hell mission as Tala had put it. Finally he got rid of the shoes and coat and was about to enter the living room but was stopped by Kai standing in front of him.

"Hey, love," Kai's voice came surprisingly softly as he leaned in to plant a peck on Rei's lips.

Rei smiled. Seeing the, in his opinion, most gorgeous being in the whole universe always made him forget his worries and in this case, tiredness. Then his expression turned serious as he remembered something important.

"Did you make the plans for tonight?" he asked.

This made Kai smirk almost mischievously, "Of course," his smirk turned more evil, "they'll never know what hit them." Now Rei giggled. Not until now he noticed what his boyfriend was holding in his hands. In the other hand he held a bottle of very expensive-looking champagne while the other was holding two glasses. Rei looked at Kai questioningly.

The older boy took that as a hint for him to place one of the glasses in Rei's hand, filling it with the fine alcohol. Then he filled his own glass and placed the bottle on a small table nearby. Now he raised the glass in front of him, a smile appearing onto his lips, "I thought we should celebrate this," he announced solemnly.

Rei chuckled a bit, "I'm underage, you know," he remarked grinning as he watched Kai take a sip from his glass. The slate-haired Russian smirked and leaned in to press a tender kiss on the younger boy's lips. He tasted like champagne, Rei noticed.

"So am I," Kai said as he pulled away, "How about if we–" he left the sentence unfinished as he collected his and Rei's glasses in his hand, placing them onto the table with the champagne bottle, "Let's just skip the alcohol, shall we." Without waiting for an answer, he wrapped his arms around the smaller boy, pulling him into a passionate kiss.

Soon Rei found himself falling on his back onto their bed. He had been so occupied with kissing his lover that he hadn't even noticed Kai pushing him gently forward all the way from the hallway to their bedroom. The neko-jin giggled softly as their lips parted, the Russian climbing on top of him and leaning down to lead him into another earthshaking wrestle of tongues.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading, please review :). Oh and I will reply to your reviews if I find it necessary. And I will probably find it necessary if the review says more than just 'nice, please update.' But even if I don't reply, I still appreciate every single review.


	2. In Trust Of No One

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, they're much appreciated. Many of you asked me to explain some thing better and that's what I'm trying to do in this and also in the following chapters. However, there will probably be some thing I don't even want to explain directly so you have to figure them out.

Then, **Kitty** asked about my choice of category. The thing is that this is supposed to be angst in the later chapters but don't be too surprised if that changes because I have this very bad habit of changing the plot during the story which means also the category may change. But, at the moment, this is still supposed to develop into a bit of angst.

And I also must tell you that I don't hate Tala nor Bryan although you might think that after this chapter. I really like them a lot but I need bad guys. So this is not supposed to be Tala+Bryan bashing.

Disclaimer: Oh… how much I would like to own the bishies, but no… I only own the storyline.

Warnings: Swearing, Shounen-ai, Bloody violence, (possible OOC:ness)

* * *

Rei shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, trying to vanquish the cold wind of the Russian autumn. He looked down at his dual-haired partner, whose fingers flew over his mini-sized laptop's keyboard with such speed it almost made one's eyes hurt. The said boy didn't seem to even notice the freezing weather. Rei liked to think it was because he was Russian and they must have it in their genes to be able to stand cold better than the poor neko-jin did. After all, he also had lived almost his whole life in Russia and still he hadn't gotten used to the chilly weather yet. Maybe he never would.

Rei shivered again, "Kai, is it just me or are you doing that so slowly just to be mean to me?"

Kai snorted, not letting the rather stupid question slow down his typing, "Do I look like I am?"

Rei had started to walk around the other teen slowly, hoping the movement would warm him up a bit, "Well, the thing is you can never know since it's you we're talking about," he stated softly.

"Geez, thanks love," Kai's voice was almost as cold as the wind trying to win the battle with Rei, "it's good to know you have trust in me," now his voice was softer, telling he really had understood the irony. The Chinese boy smiled but remained silent. He gazed at a huge mansion standing a couple of hundred meters ahead of them. The owners of the house weren't at home so it was all dark except for a few windows on the left wing. Rei decided the rooms probably belonged to the servants. Then he let his eyes explore the building some more. It looked almost frightening. Like it was yelling, 'Don't you dare come near me!'

Rei glared at the mansion warningly before he turned back to Kai, "So I'll get the key?"

Kai nodded, never taking his eyes off the screen of his computer, "From the kid's room at the third floor. The exact location is up to you to find," he said offhandedly. Rei raised an eyebrow at him. He couldn't bring himself to understand how Kai always managed to remain so composed while he himself was always freaking out about every mission they got.

"Sure," Rei heard himself responding. He stopped to stand beside his friend, glancing down at the computer screen, "Really, what kind of an idiot gives an extremely valuable key to a child?"

Kai stopped typing and watched at the swiftly moving text on the screen as the computer was trying to break into the mansion's security system, "Beats me," frankly, he couldn't care less. Everything was fine with him as far as it didn't make thing more difficult in any way.

Suddenly the computer let out a quiet peeping sound, making Kai smirk as he closed the laptop, shoving it into his bag. Now he straightened up, "All right, now the security system will be down for twenty minutes which means you've got about nineteen minutes to get the key and get the hell out of there," Kai looked at Rei as if asking if he had understood everything. The ebony-haired boy had paled visibly. Kai smiled. He knew how much stress it always caused for the boy to have to do this. The Russian planted a soft peck onto the other boy's lips, "Come on, it's fine," he received a small nod from Rei before they started running towards the mansion.

They got into the building easily since breaking the access code had unlocked the gate and every door of the house. In the huge lobby they parted, both moving soundlessly into different directions. Rei headed to the stairs while Kai went right for the library.

As the slate-haired boy had found the huge double-doors of the library, he quietly opened them and walked in, cautiously glancing around in the huge room. The whole room was surrounded by high bookshelves rising proudly against every wall. Once he was sure to be unseen, he quickly made his way to a desk in front of a huge window. Again he took out his laptop and started typing. He was determined to find a way to open the door to a secret room he knew was connected with the library.

Meanwhile Rei had sneaked his way up to the third floor and was now peeking into what appeared to be the fourth living room he had already seen in this mansion. After making sure there was no-one around, he stepped into the room and started moving in the shadows towards another door on the side of the room, carefully making sure his feet made no sound at all. That was actually rather easy for him. He was a neko-jin, after all.

Finally he reached the doorway and peeked out, immediately pulling back and jumping behind a huge chair behind him with as much grace as a real cat. He hid himself into the protective shadow of the chair and watched quietly as a tall and sturdily built man dressed like a butler walked past him. Luckily the man hadn't seen Rei, which he was really happy since the man surely looked strong enough to break the poor boy's spine like it was just a little branch.

The man looked like he was just doing his usual check which meant Rei and Kai's antics hadn't been revealed yet. And Rei really hoped they also wouldn't. Kai had tricked the security system so that the guards wouldn't notice anything odd if they would check the recordings the security cameras were sending to the monitors.

Finally the butler was gone and Rei was able to continue his way to where the key to the box Kai was currently looking for was supposed to be hidden. He glanced at his wristwatch and noticed he had about eleven minutes left. He quickly made his way out of the room to the hallway and from there to a surprisingly-not-so-huge room which looked kind of a library or yet another living room. Then he saw a door on the other side of the room. A smile found its place on his lips. He knew that was the room he had been looking for.

In the huge library downstairs after being typing for several minutes Kai received a peeping sound from his laptop as it showed him a picture of the room. Everything in the picture was shown dark blue except for a little yellow spot on the desk next to the laptop. Kai moved his eyes from the computer's screen to look at the object next to it. It was a black antique inkbottle. He smirked and took a hold of the bottle, carefully turning it clockwise a bit until a small clicking sound was heard. He threw the laptop back into his bag as a bookshelf started to open, revealing a passageway to the hidden room.

Kai quickly moved to the secret room, scanning it through with his eyes until he spotted a safety-deposit box behind a desk. He walked over to it, kneeling down in front of it. He started rummaging through his bag for the needed tools to open the box.

At the upstairs Rei was standing in front of the dark wooden door, ready to open it. Then, as he was about to open it, he stopped, listening. Then as he was sure he was alone, he reached for the knob but before he could take a hold of it, the door opened in front of him, making him jump backwards.

"Mom? How come you're already at ho–" the sleepy voice was cut off as the owner of it realised it wasn't his mother who stood in front of him. The teenaged boy stared at Rei with his eyes slowly widening with surprise.

Rei was in at least as big of a shock as the other boy in front of him. No, he was terrified. This was because he recognised the boy to be a friend of his. The neko-jin started backing up but soon his back made contact with a wall, leaving him no ways to escape.

The other boy just stood there, staring at Rei. He obviously hadn't realised who he was yet, which Rei was really grateful. That didn't last long, though. Soon the boy's eyes widened some more and he had to take a double take of air into his lungs.

"R-Rei?" his voice was shaking.

Rei gasped out of his trance and shook his head violently, "No," his voice was hardly louder than a whisper, _'shit, shit… goddammit…'_ Rei wanted to kick himself for being so… _seen_.

"You- you are the White Tiger they all are talking about?" the teen asked, gaining more confidence.

"No! I'm not…" Rei's voice broke. He quickly moved his hand to feel his waist line, looking for something from his belt. Then he raised his hand again, this time pointing a gun at his friend.

The said friend jumped slightly at the action, "Wha–"

"Shut up!" Rei demanded, "Or I'll shoot…" he couldn't believe he was doing this. Sure, he had killed people before but this was different. He really wasn't going to kill his friend.

"Rei, please, don't… we… we can think of something," the teenaged boy in front of him offered, visibly afraid.

Rei shook his head again, "What, Max?" he felt tears trying to form in his eyes. He couldn't let anyone know who he really was without eliminating them. The organisation he worked for, Biovolt, was not to come to the daylight just like he himself.

Max had started to shake, "I- I don't know yet," he whispered.

Rei glanced quickly at his watch, his eyes widening slightly. He had only nine minutes left and he hadn't found the key yet. Then a thought practically hit him right against his face. _Max_ was the kid of the family they were currently robbing. _Max_ was the kid who had the key they needed.

The Chinese boy glanced his friend up and down and up again until his gaze stopped at his neck. Around his neck, the boy had a golden chain which was partly hidden under his bathrobe.

_Flashback_

_Rei had just gotten a huge pile of dishes washed and was drying his hands with a towel in the backroom of the Chinese restaurant he was working at. _

_Suddenly something very pink came rushing in, "Rei, the cute blond friend of yours is here, said he wanted to see you," the girl informed. _

"_Oh," Rei smiled, "thanks, Mariah," he followed the girl through the door to the restaurant where he saw the said friend sitting at the counter, smiling brightly as he saw Rei. _

"_Hi!" the blond greeted. _

"_Hey, Max," Rei answered, leaning against the counter in front of the boy, "what's up? Haven't seen you in a while." _

_Max shrugged, "Yeah, I've been travelling." _

"_Oh," Rei sighed. He wanted to go travelling too, but he could never do that. Suddenly his eyes spotted something golden around Max's neck. Or rather, something interesting hanging from the golden chain. There was a little black object which resembled a bit of a key but was somewhat different, "What's that?" he asked, making the other boy follow his gaze. _

"_Uh… it's the key of my diary," Max said quickly and slipped the chain inside of his collar, out of sight. _

"_Right, sorry," Rei smiled, thinking he had hit a too personal spot._

_Max smiled, "God I'm hungry. Aren't you gonna offer me anything to eat, last time I checked this was a restaurant after all…" Rei laughed at his friend and handed him a menu. _

_End flashback_

Rei blinked, "Max, give me the key," he then said.

Max shook his head, "No."

"Now, give me the key or I'm really going to shoot," Rei warned, unfamiliar hardness in his voice. Max flinched and shook his head but then reached his hands behind his neck to open the lock. Then he held the chain in front of him for Rei to take. The neko-jin reached out his hand carefully and snatched the chain with the key from his friend, all the time watching him intensively, ready to react if he would try anything stupid. That didn't happen and now they both were in their previous positions again, Rei against the wall pointing the gun at Max who hadn't moved from the doorway.

"What now?" Max's voice asked after a while. What now? Rei had absolutely no idea. A quick glance at the clock told him he was seriously going to run out of time soon. He had only seven minutes left.

Then Rei came to think of his dual-haired boyfriend downstairs. He raised his left hand to his ear, pressing a little button on his earphone, "Uh… Phoenix?"

"_What? I'm in the middle of something,"_ came Kai's voice almost rudely into Rei's ear.

"Yeah, me too. I need you up here," Rei pleaded. He heard a soft sigh on the other side of the line.

"_What is it?"_

"Uh, can't explain, just please come up here."

Kai was silent for a moment, _"Sure, I'm finished off here soon and then I will come, ok?"_ he then said.

"Ok, just hurry," Rei felt very small at the moment. The line went dead. He glanced at the clock. Five and a half minutes.

Max shifted his weight from one foot to another nervously, making Rei focus on him. An awkward silence made the air thicken around them. This situation remained until after what felt like hours, Rei's sharp ears spotted soft steps approaching them quickly. He glanced at the clock. Two minutes.

Then Kai was standing in the room with them. He glanced at Rei and then at Max before walking behind the latter one who was too shocked to react.

"Don't move," He ordered coldly and after a small nod from Max he took hold of his chin to bend the teen's neck a bit. Then Kai took something out from his pocket. It was a syringe with some clear liquid inside. Max flinched a bit as the needle penetrated the skin of his neck.

Rei watched in slightly growing terror as Max's feet soon gave way, making him fall. Kai, however, caught the boy and lifted him up in his arms, carrying him into his room to lie down onto the bed. As much as Rei saw, Max was now totally unconscious. Shakily the neko-jin put away his gun as Kai came back to him.

"Now, we have less than a minute," the Russian informed as he started dragging Rei towards the stairs.

They had run to the second floor when Rei realised they would never have the time to get out the normal way. So he grabbed Kai's hand and pulled him with him as he quickly opened a pair of glass doors leading to a balcony. He stopped at the railing, gazing down.

"Damn, it's too high…" he turned back to Kai, "the rope!" he spun Kai around so that he could take a rope out of his bag. Then he tied it quickly to the railing and wrapped other one of his arms around the Russian while the other took tight hold of the rope. Kai followed his example, "Hold tight," Rei ordered. Then they climbed up to the railing and jumped down.

The rope wasn't long enough to reach to the ground so they had to let go and fall a few meters without it. Rei fell first, having Kai falling on top of him on the ground. Quickly they straightened up and ran to the gate but unluckily for them, the time was out and the gate was locked.

"What now?" Re asked, hoping for Kai to come up with some clever plan. And quickly before they would be noticed. Much to his disappointment, Kai looked totally baffled. Rei sighed and started glancing at the wall, gauging it with his eyes, _"Maybe I could…"_ he turned to Kai, "I might just be able to jump over that wall, but I need your help," after a brief moment he got a nod from Kai, who moved closer to the wall.

"Are you sure? It's kind of high…" Kai looked at Rei questioningly.

The Chinese boy shrugged, "Yeah, but do you have better plans?" Kai shook his head. Rei smiled and walked over to the other boy, "Uh… then I guess I'm going to jump and you will give me speed…" He trailed off, looking at the wall, "and when I'm up, I'll pull you up."

Now Kai shook his head again, "That's not going to work, I'm heavier than you," he said.

"No, it's fine," Rei smiled again, pulling the other boy closer, "now, we don't have time…" He took hold of Kai's shoulders while the Russian's hands moved to his hips. Then he jumped, feeling how Kai's arms lifted him up, hurling him higher.

Rei landed on the wall, quickly balancing himself. Then he kneeled down, taking hold of the edge of the wall with his other hand while the other was reached down to help Kai, "Jump," he told the older boy standing on the ground. Kai shook his head. Rei was about to protest but went silent as he saw a few security guards running towards them from the mansion. They had been seen. "Shit… just jump you moron! I'll be fine," Kai glanced over his shoulder and swiftly turned back, now pushing himself off the ground as high as it was possible for him. Rei managed to get hold of his other hand and tightening the grip, started pulling as hard as he could.

As they both were sure Kai would never get over the wall, Rei moved the other hand from the wall to join the other holding Kai's hand. Now he lost his balance and, letting out a little surprised yelp, fell backwards to the other side of the wall, landing on his back onto the ground, soon having Kai on top of him.

The slate-haired boy quickly pushed himself up, looking down at his lover who was still holding his hand in a tight grip and his eyes were tightly shut, "Rei?" his whisper held concern.

Now the addressed boy slowly opened one of his eyes, "I'm alive?" he was utterly surprised.

Kai laughed a bit, "Yeah, can you move?" He rose to his feet and held out a hand to help the other boy.

Rei nodded, "Yeah," he grabbed the offered hand and let Kai haul him up to his feet.

"Now, we'd better get going before they catch us," Kai said alluding to the guards. Rei nodded and they ran to the nearby woods.

As Rei was sure they were far enough, he grabbed Kai's arm, forcing him to stop, "What was that back there?"

First Kai looked at him a bit puzzled but then he understood what he meant, "Oh you mean the syringe I gave to your friend?" A nod from Rei, "It was a mixture of medicines that will erase his memory of an hour era," the Russian teen explained casually.

Rei's eyes widened, "You… poisoned Max?" he asked accusingly.

Kai rolled his eyes, "Well, you were going to shoot him."

"I was not!" Rei defended, "I just… pretended I would…"

Kai smirked smugly, "Sure, but you must admit… without me being there you really would have had to shoot him."

Now it was Rei's turn to roll his eyes, "Whatever…" Kai had a point, though, and Rei knew it. They were silent for a moment until Rei broke it, "So it erases his memory you said?"

Kai nodded, "He won't remember a thing and you can meet him again without him recognising you to be the White Tiger."

Rei sighed, relieved, "Great, you're an angel," his smile faded then, "wait a minute… why didn't I know about that medicine? Where did you even get it?"

"Uh," Kai scratched the palm of his left hand, "Tala gave it to me a few weeks ago… I forgot to tell you, sorry," he grinned rather un-Kai-like. Rei snorted but didn't say anything, "Speaking of the devil, they're waiting for us," Kai said and continued walking. Rei sped after him to walk beside him.

As Kai and Rei entered the same deserted factory area as the day before, they saw Tala and Bryan standing in the middle of an empty square, having what looked like very heated conversation. Rather, Bryan was yelling at Tala while the other tried to look as bored as possible though it was obvious he was fuming. Then the redhead saw the approaching couple and raised his hand, silencing Bryan. They started walking towards the other two.

"Hello again," Tala greeted and much to everyone's surprise bowed his head a bit. Kai could tell he was up to something, "How's your life today?" With this Tala earned a pair of raised eyebrows from Kai and Rei.

"Save it, I'm not on the mood, Tala," Kai said then bluntly, taking the key Rei offered to him.

Tala sighed softly, "Yeah, when would you ever be…" He gladly took the little black box as well as the little key from Kai, observing them carefully, "well done, I knew we could count on you," He smiled.

"Um… what about–" Rei started.

"The promise?" Tala cut him off. Rei didn't reply. Tala smirked, "Well, you see I'm not really a trustworthy person…" Immediately, before anyone could do anything, Bryan was behind Rei, locking his arms behind him while he held a big knife on the boy's throat. Kai was left to stand between them and Tala, who looked more than pleased with the situation despite what he said then, "Now, I want you to know that I really wouldn't like to do this but Boris thinks you've been acting a bit… unreliably so we need to teach you a lesson." Now he raised his gun.

"What the hell?" Kai demanded.

Tala shrugged, "Your relationship is starting to hamper your work,"

"That's not true," Rei objected and whimpered a bit as Bryan pressed the knife tighter against his throat. Kai threw him a warning look.

"Why are you doing this?" Kai's voice came colourlessly.

"You need to understand what your position is… did you honestly think we would let you go?" Now Tala laughed, "You can't ever resign Biovolt… unless you die," the red-haired boy smirked at his last statement. Then he quickly jumped towards Kai, his right leg making contact with the boy's back, making him fall flat on the ground.

Kai determinedly forced himself up, pain written all over his face. Now Tala's foot connected with his abdomen, sending him flying backwards a couple of meters.

"No, stop it!" Rei screamed and tried to struggle free. Bryan's grip tightened around the boy who let out a short cry as the knife sunk into the skin under his collarbone, leaving a deep, bleeding cut.

"Leave him alone, you bastard!" Kai warned as he stood up with difficulty, coughing out some blood.

"Your attitude is really getting on my nerves, Kai," Tala remarked as if it was the most natural thing to say at the exact moment. He raised his gun again.

"Why… why are you doing this?" Rei sobbed, both from fear and pain.

Tala tilted his head a bit as he moved his gaze to the Chinese teen, "Oh Rei," he sighed, "can't you understand you can never be free when…" he paused, "… you don't even exist?" Then a sharp gunshot cut the air.

_Flashback_

_A little boy, not more than seven years old, stood in front of a huge fireplace, watching the dance of the flames. He glanced to his left where he saw three other boys standing, all of them staring at the flames. The smallest one of the four of them standing next to him turned to look at him, his big, golden eyes gathering the light. _

"_Kai!" a sharp voice snapped the boy back to his senses as he turned to look at the fireplace again. Now in front of it stood an about middle-aged tall man looking right down at him, "Do you know what this is?" the man held a paper in front of the boy. He took a quick glance at it. _

"_Yes," the little Kai said bluntly. _

"_Well?" the man's voice was so cruel it made shivers run down the boy's spine. _

"_It's my birth certificate," Kai answered. _

"_That's right. And do you know what would happen to it if I threw it into the fire?" Now Kai nodded. The man smirked and let the document fall into the flames, watching as it burned. Kai couldn't get his eyes off the last burning evidence of his whole existence. He knew the burning birth certificate was only a metaphor for the fact that all the files of him were gone, meaning he didn't exist to the world anymore. There was no place he could ever go. He was now officially a property of Biovolt. _

_Soon three other similar documents were thrown into the fireplace._

_End flashback_

"No!" Rei screamed as Kai fell onto his knees, his right hand pressed to his abdomen, blood staining his pale fingers.

"On that day we sold ourselves to Biovolt," Tala said quietly as if not hearing Rei's cry. Then the red-haired Russian laughed and moved the gun to point it at Rei, "Except for you, Rei, who were sold – literally – on the very day you were bought from the slave market eleven years ago," Now Rei's head was bowed down, his black hair hiding his tearstained face. He chose not to say anything to Tala's comment. "Oh, don't tell me you've forgotten about it?" Tala sounded a bit disappointed. No, Rei hadn't forgotten.

"You sick piece of shit," Kai growled as he straightened up. Amazingly quickly, considering his condition, he had pulled his gun out and was pointing it at Tala.

"I suggest you drop the gun," came Bryan's voice coldly behind him, making him turn around. He saw Bryan moving the knife to Rei's throat, threatening to cut it. The scared neko-jin mouthed a word, 'No,' to his boyfriend but Kai didn't find any other choice than to drop the gun. And so he did.

Tala laughed and pulled the trigger again, this time hitting Kai's shoulder.

"Don't kill him," Rei sobbed, "take me instead."

Tala smiled, "That's so sweet, but I can't do that," he said softly, "you see, Kai can be replaced but you… you are a neko-jin and therefore very valuable… although you were bought in absurdly low price…"

Rei cried out as one more gunshot was heard followed by an abhorrent thud as Kai fell onto the ground. Then Bryan made another deep cut next to the other on Rei's neck before shoving him onto the ground next to the dual-haired Russian. Faintly Rei heard as Tala and Bryan ran away, leaving the two figures on the ground.

Sobbing the Chinese boy crawled over to his boyfriend, "K- Kai?" he touched the boy's shoulder, "Please don't be dead…" his voice cracked.

Kai opened his eyes, looking at the crying figure next to him, "Rei," he whispered.

Rei snapped his head up from his hands at the mention of his name, "You're alive," quickly he pushed himself up and grabbed Kai's arm, "come," a sob made him pause, "we need to go to the hospital, it's not far from here…" he pulled Kai up, supporting him as they started walking.

They headed to a secret clinic which's owner had helped them several times before. They could never go to a normal hospital but this clinic was different. The doctor and the two currently bleeding criminals had an agreement since the doctor himself didn't exactly have clean record and even the clinic was illegal.

Halfway to the clinic, Kai fainted. Rei lifted him up to his back and continued walking, praying to every single god and goddess he had ever heard of to let him get there in time, "Don't die, please… I'm nothing without you…," the boy muttered, trying his best to stay in his senses.

Rei was ready to cry for happiness as he finally saw the door to the clinic. Without his determination to save Kai he would already have fainted due to the amount of blood he had lost. His shirt was soaked with blood. Both his and Kai's. He forced himself to take the few more steps until he was in the clinic's reception, seeing the receptionist running towards them. Then the boy sighed and let himself collapse onto the floor as he lost consciousness.

* * *

A/N: Thanks for reading, don't forget to review. I need feedback :).


	3. Wounded Heart

A/N: Hey again! Thanks for all the reviews once more, they really cheer me up :). Keep them coming, please.

Disclaimer: Beyblade belongs to its rightful owner which is not me although I own this fic.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, angst…

* * *

"Here you go, mister, have a nice day!" a woman standing behind the counter wished as she offered a small packet to the boy. The boy nodded and took the packet.

"Thank you," he said quietly as if talking more to himself than to the woman. He turned and quickly strode to the door, opening the packet and taking out a sheaf of photographs. There he stopped and swiftly browsed the pictures through until he found what he was looking for. Then he dropped all but one of the pictures into a trashcan near the door before walking out of the photography studio. The one photograph he stuffed deep into his pocket.

Meeting the cold winter outside made the boy pull his coat tighter around himself as he continued walking in quick pace. He was glad his next destination wasn't too far and soon he found himself standing in front of a familiar Chinese restaurant. He glanced at his clock. He was early today. As he had been every morning for the past three months.

He put his hand on the handle and pulled lightly. The door started opening with ease. _'Lee must be here already…'_ The boy pulled the door fully open and stepped in to the still empty restaurant.

"Ah, good morning Rei, I see you're early again," the familiar voice came from behind the counter and as the addressed boy turned his gaze towards the voice he met a pair of bronze eyes observing him sharply.

Rei sighed and walked over to the other boy, "Morning, Lee," he smiled briefly and continued to walk towards the backroom.

He was, however, stopped as something pink came through the door quickly making him flinch with surprise, "Rei!" the girl was hardly able to stop before she knocked the stunned teen over. She stood there before the boy for a good while, watching him just stare in utter confusion. Then she sighed and waved a hand in front of his face, making him flinch again as he snapped out of his trance, "Have you been lacking sleep again?" she asked motherly.

"Eh… Mariah? I… uh…" Rei stuttered, stepping back a few steps.

"Listen Rei, we've been thinking… should you take a few days off?" Lee said from behind the ebony-haired boy, making him spin around on his heels.

"Huh? Wha–" Rei blinked, "But I need–"

Mariah let out another deep sigh, "You know, you've been a total workaholic ever since Kai–" she suddenly went quiet, not sure if she should finish the sentence. Rei just stared at her with a blank expression on his face.

Then, after a long silence, his voice came quietly, "But I need to do something…"

"But Rei, we're worried about you," the girl exclaimed emphatically, "You never sleep and you hardly even eat nowadays!" Rei remained silent, just staring at the girl coldly. How could she think she had any right to say those things to a person who had lost the only reason to live for? It was his own problem how he lived his life, no one else's.

"Knock it off, Mariah," Lee's voice commanded firmly beside the ebony-haired boy, "And Rei, I'm going to fire you if you won't do as I say," he stared at the other boy challengingly, waiting for his reply.

Slowly the boy took in the information and his eyes widened slightly as he turned to look at his employer, "You…" he whispered, "you wouldn't…" The other boy just nodded, making Rei's eyes widen even more, "But I need this job!" his voice had surprisingly much strength.

Now Lee smiled, "I know," he turned and walked back behind the counter to continue what he was doing earlier, "that's why you're having a few days off," his voice told the younger boy clearly that he had no options. Rei stared at him for a moment, his eyes slowly regaining their normal size. Then he closed his eyes in defeat and smiled faintly.

Without anything more said, Rei walked back out to face the cold winter air again, sooner than he had originally planned. He headed straight to his apartment that wasn't too far from the restaurant. He was no longer living in the apartment he had shared with Kai since he alone could never afford living in it. Actually you could say it had been Kai's apartment since he had paid a lot more of it than Rei. But it had been a fine arrangement for the both of them since Rei in any case had done his best to pay his share. And when Rei had sometimes felt bad for that he couldn't pay as much as Kai, the slate-haired boy would just smirk and tell him he did pay an equal share… just a bit differently. That's when Rei would always burst out laughing and tell him he was a total pervert. But it had always made him forget his sadness. Kai had had that power over him.

Rei stopped his musing as he saw a familiar, slightly older boy leaning against his door. A boy he hadn't seen in three months. The sight made the Chinese teen tense and he actually considered turning and running away. But the other boy had already seen him and was now staring at him firmly, a small smirk forming onto his lips.

"Good morning, Kon," the visitor greeted smugly as Rei stood in front of him.

"Step aside, Bryan," the ebony-haired boy ordered, his voice unfamiliarly harsh. This only made the Russian chuckle slightly.

"No, I can't do that until you have listened to what I have to say," he said, indeed not making a move to do as was told. Rei merely glared at him. Bryan took this as a cue for him to continue, "There's a party tomorrow night and you need to be there," he said simply. Rei raised an eyebrow.

"I'll pass," he then said bluntly, drawing more chuckles from the older boy.

"It was an order," the Russian said, straightening up, "there will be a person present that will probably buy the box you stole back then," he explained. Rei just stared at him, surprised that they hadn't sold it until now.

Then he shook his head, "No, you can go with Tala," he wanted nothing more to do with that damned box he had grown to hate during the time he had been alone. For some reason he considered that the reason for Kai's death.

"Rei," the ebony haired boy looked up at the mention of his name, locking his eyes with those lavender of Bryan's, "You will come," Rei shivered slightly at the strange tone of the Russian's voice. He knew he had heard it before. It was like it locked him there where he stood and make him unable to move, unable to object.

"Yes," he heard his voice say without his permission.

Bryan smirked and broke the eye contact, walking past him smoothly, his long black coat waving behind him, "Be ready at eight tomorrow night. And don't forget to put on your best suit, it's an elite party," he said before walking away, leaving the puzzled boy standing there as if being in trance.

"Rei!" the Chinese boy flinched slightly and turned to face a blond-haired boy running towards him, "What are you doing?" the boy asked as he stopped in front of him, panting slightly.

"Uh," was all Rei was able to say. Then he glanced around and noticed he was still standing at his front door. _'When did Bryan leave?'_ Then he noticed the younger boy next to him, "Ah, Max…," he sighed, "Nothing. Would you like to come inside?" he offered politely.

The other teen nodded happily. Rei smiled and stuck his hand in his pocket, taking out his key. While doing so he also accidentally dropped a photograph onto the ground. Max bent over to raise it for him. The boy looked at the photo for a moment and then turned to gaze at Rei who had just gotten the door opened. He obviously hadn't noticed dropping the picture.

"Is this Kai?" Max's question made Rei turn around quickly.

"Huh?" he looked down at what his friend was holding. He recognised it to be one of the photographs he had had made earlier that day. It was the only one he had saved. In the picture there were him and Kai probably a few months ago. He couldn't exactly remember when or why it had been taken but that was the only picture where Kai had ever smiled that absolutely gorgeous and sadly rare smile of his. Rei smiled softly and glanced at Max quickly. The other boy had his eyes glued to the photo, "Didn't you ever meet him?" Rei asked a bit surprised. Max shook his head slowly, moving his eyes from Kai's deep crimson pools to Rei's golden ones, "You probably wouldn't have liked him," Rei said offhandedly as he took the picture from Max and stuck it back into his pocket before stepping into his apartment.

Max blinked a couple of times before following the older boy into the house, "Aren't you supposed to say I would have liked him?"

Rei let out a brief, dry laugh, "No, it's exactly how I said it," he told, taking off his coat.

Max also took off his coat and followed the Chinese teen to the small kitchen, "How come?"

Rei walked over to one of his cupboards and took out a kettle, "Would you like to have some tea?" he looked at the other boy questioningly and got a nod for an answer. Now he filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove. Then he went for another cupboard to look for all the other things he needed. Then he remembered Max hadn't gotten his answer yet. Maybe he just didn't want to answer. He still found it a bit uncomfortable to talk about Kai. It was as if it made him think about the dual-haired boy and he actually didn't want to think about him. He just wanted to forget everything that happened. But the truth was he was thinking about Kai all the time, _'I guess it can't be helped,'_ he sighed, "Um… he wasn't always friendly…" he glanced at Max and saw him looking slightly surprised. Perhaps he wasn't expecting Rei to answer anymore, "…pretty rarely actually."

Max raised an eyebrow, "Oh." He found himself wondering why Rei had been so in love with this Kai then. At least the Rei he knew was so kind it was hard for him to imagine him being with someone who was not. He snapped back to his senses as Rei motioned for him to take a seat at the table. Rei wouldn't let him help so he did as was told. Soon he had a cup of steaming tea in front of him and Rei had even offered him some cookies, bewailing he didn't have much to serve. That he would have bought something if he had known Max was coming. But Max just told him it was fine.

Now they were sitting in silence, Rei staring out a window while Max was gazing at his friend who hadn't even touched his tea yet although it must have been cold already, "Uh, Rei," Max broke the silence, making the other boy look at him, "I went to the restaurant today but Mariah told me you're at home."

Rei narrowed his eyes a bit, "Did she tell you to come here?" he asked blankly.

"Yeah, I mean… I would have come anyway. We're all worried about you, Rei, you never talk about it," Rei could tell Max was sincere, "really, you will only hurt yourself by doing that."

Now Rei looked directly at his friend, "By doing what?"

"By hiding behind that mask," Now Max reached over the table and took hold of the ebony-haired teen's hand, "Rei, please, I want you to talk to me."

Rei stared down at Max's hand for a good while as if pondering what to do. Then he drew his hand away and stood up, gazing down at the blond boy, "I have nothing to talk about," with this he made his way to the living room. Max followed soon after and found the neko-jin curled up in a corner of a huge couch in the middle of the room. He had hidden his face into his knees.

"Are you sure?" he asked as he walked over to his friend. All he got was a nod. He sighed, "Fine, but know that when you are ready, I'll be listening, okay?" Another nod. Max dropped himself next to the other boy.

After ten minutes of somewhat awkward silence, Max turned to look at Rei again. He hadn't moved at all, "Do you want me to go?" he asked. Rei shook his head. Max smiled and stood up. Now Rei raised his head and looked at him questioningly, "Do you want to watch films? I brought some films I thought you might like…" Now Rei gave him a small smile followed by an equally small nod.

Soon they were watching some vampire movie. Or more like Max was watching a vampire movie. Rei had fallen into a restless sleep soon after the film had started.

_Rei heard faint peeping sounds echoing around him as he started regaining consciousness. Slowly his eyes fluttered open and he saw nothing but white at first. Then everything started to get forms. There was a table and a chair next to the bed he was lying on. Everything was still white but at least they had shapes now. At first he didn't know where he was and what had happened. Then suddenly it all rushed into his mind, making him shoot up so quickly he fell off the bed. Piercing pain shot through his body starting from the cuts on his neck. He raised his hand to feel his neck and noticed the wounds had been bandaged._

_He ripped off a couple of tubes from his hands and stood up a bit shakily, taking support from the bed. _

_Suddenly the door to the room opened and a nurse walked in, stopping as she saw the boy standing, "Sir, you really should get back to bed," she said, offering to help the boy. _

_But Rei just shook his head violently, "No, I need to see Kai," He took a few steps towards the door but the nurse stopped him. _

"_It's not safe, you have lost too much blood. You need to rest," again she tried to help him but now he just shoved her aside rather harshly. _

"_No! What I need is to see Kai!" he shouted, forcing his legs to carry him to the door and along the hallway as he checked the names on the doors. Finally there was a door which said, 'Hiwatari Kai'. Rei sighed and opened the door, walking in quietly._

_The room was similar to his. There was a bed in the middle of it surrounded by all kinds of life supporting machines. And in the middle of it all was Kai, appearing to be asleep. Rei walked beside the bed, taking support from it. He felt tears forming into his eyes. Kai looked so small, so fragile. And he looked so very tired. _

"_Kai?" Rei whispered, "Wake up, Kai," he reached out his hand to stroke a few slate-coloured strands away from the other boy's face. Nothing happened. Even the strands fell back to their previous positions. Rei heard himself letting out a small sob, "Kai, please… don't die. I can't make it without you." He felt his legs give way and he fell onto the floor, crying hopelessly. _

_He stretched out a hand to look for the chair that was beside the bed. Once he found it, he pulled himself back up with the help of the object, dropping down to sit on it. He moved the chair closer to the bed. _

"_I love you," he sobbed, placing a hand on the other boy's cheek to stroke it gently. It was so perfectly soft. The whole person the cheek belonged to was perfect in Rei's opinion. And to him, already that alone was a perfectly good reason as to why Kai couldn't die. The world needed perfect people. Rei sighed and suddenly feeling very tired he rested his head on the bed next to Kai's. _

_All of a sudden the regular peeps changed into a very rapid ones, waking the neko-jin up with a startle. He hadn't even noticed falling asleep. Now he jumped up, almost losing his balance. _

"_Help," he gasped, only faintly understanding what was happening. Then his eyes widened with utter terror, "Somebody, please!" he screamed, grabbing Kai's hand in a tight grip as if believing that would save them both. _

_Then he was pulled away from the boy as a couple of doctors ran into the room, "No! Kai!" Rei heard himself screaming again as his vision was blurred by his uncontrollably flowing tears. Someone held him back, making sure he wouldn't run back to his boyfriend. And he was too weak to resist. Then someone was shaking him. _

Rei woke up to his own scream. The shaking stopped and a scared looking Max moved a bit away from the gasping teen, "Rei, it's ok now," he whispered, "it was just a dream."

"No," Rei sobbed, now shaking madly, "he- he died," the boy broke down into a desperate cry. Max gave his friend a sympathetic look and moved closer, pulling the boy into a comforting hug. Rei's sobs just seemed to get stronger as he clung onto his friend tightly, "I'm sorry," Max's shirt muffled his cry.

"No," Max closed his eyes, his heart aching just for the thought of his friend being in such pain, "you have every right to be sad."

"Bu- but he… he left me," Rei tightened his hold on Max's shirt, "he wanted to get away from me…" a tear-filled gasp, "…for he didn't love me anymore-" a choked sob, "it's all my fault!"

Max snapped his eyes open and pushed the older boy away from him so that he could have a good look at him. He gazed at the boy almost angrily, "Stop it! It wasn't your fault so don't blame yourself," Rei had started shaking again.

"But he left me…" he sobbed out his whisper. Now Max stood up and marched away.

Soon he came back and held the picture of Kai and Rei in front of the other boy, "Look! Would he be smiling like that if he didn't love you, huh?" he questioned firmly. Rei just stared at the photo for a long time, his sobs slowly dying into little gasps. Finally he took the picture into his hand and curled up in a ball, sending a small smile to Max.

Max returned the smile, "I should probably get going, it's quite late already…" To this Rei only nodded, already spacing out into his little world where was room only for him, the photograph and his memories.


	4. Breathe Life

A/N: Hi, here's an update, hope you'll like it. Thanks for the reviews :). Don't forget to review this one too and tell me what you honestly think about this story. Constructive criticism will be highly appreciated so if you find any errors please correct me for I wish to improve my writing skills.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the storyline and my own characters.

Warnings: hints of shounen-ai.

* * *

Despite all his unwillingness to go to the party, Rei found himself standing in front of his full-length mirror wearing his best suit, trying to fix his unco-operative hair. He could not believe he was actually doing as Bryan had told him. And he did not forget to scold himself for that constantly as he still did his best to look decent. Finally he gave in and decided it was useless. His hair sure had a will of its own. He glanced at a clock on his wall. It was almost eight.

"Ah, aren't we looking pretty," a colourless voice commented from the doorway, making the ebony-haired teen turn to face its owner.

"How did you come in?" Rei questioned the redhead poisonously. Now he couldn't believe he had totally failed hearing the intruder come in. The said intruder just flashed him his extremely self-satisfied smirk.

"Well, you know…" Tala said, leaving the rest of the sentence for Rei to figure out by himself.

The Chinese boy turned back to the mirror, trying his best to resist the urge to attack the other boy, "Where's Bryan?" He decided to give his hair one more chance.

"Who knows…" Tala snickered as he saw Rei's reflection raising him an eyebrow, "I guess he had something important to do… said he would meet us at the party," now the boy walked behind the other. Rei's delicate fingers stopped shaping the hair for a moment as he glared at the taller boy through the mirror, his target remaining completely unharmed.

"Shouldn't you have asked where he was going?" the boy asked gruffly, his fingers continuing their evidently hopeless task.

"It did cross my mind…" Tala said contemplatively, his blue eyes glued to Rei's golden ones, "but then again," his eyes moved to observe the younger boy's form through the mirror, "we don't need Bryan…" now the fingers of his right hand trailed down an imaginary line from Rei's shoulder to his neck until they reached his chin and turned his face towards Tala's.

Rei was entirely frozen, just waiting for what the older boy was up to, "Don't get any ideas…," he whispered, making the Russian smirk slightly.

"Bryan said you looked like shit," Tala's comment startled the Chinese boy, leaving him gaping at the redhead unable to react to what happened next. Tala fished something from his pocket, "And I must agree with him but don't worry…" now Rei saw what he was holding. It was a make up stick, "A little bit of my magic and everything will be just fine."

Soon Rei was looking at his reflection again. The dark bags under his eyes, caused by the lack of sleep he was having, were completely vanished. And you couldn't even tell he was wearing make up.

Tala smirked smugly, "Am I good or what?" Rei was sure he didn't really expect him to answer that.

"Thanks," the ebony-haired teen didn't forget to be polite even when he had to try his very best to make up some good reasons as to why he shouldn't just kill the other boy. He walked past the Russian, heading to the door, "We'll be late if we don't hurry," he informed the other boy who just smirked and quietly followed him.

-----

The two young criminals were standing at the doorway to an enormous hall filled with people, most of them with not so clean records. They both were scanning through the mass, Tala trying to spot Bryan while Rei was trying to decide where would be the best place to ditch the Russian whose company wasn't wanted.

"Ah!" Tala's exclamation broke the silence just as Rei was about to make his graceful disappearance into the crowd. The redhead tugged at the younger boy's sleeve, motioning him to follow as he started walking towards the other side of the room. The Chinese teen frowned slightly but decided it would probably be for the best if he obeyed. By now he had started accepting the fact that he had come to the party but now the thing he could not believe to be true was that his escort was none other than the person who had killed the love of his life. Actually he felt like he never wanted to even see Tala again after what he had done. However, being the smart boy, Rei understood life didn't work that way. Not for him at least. "Bryan!" Rei snapped out of his bitter thoughts and noticed they were now standing in front of the lavender-haired Russian.

"Excellent timing," the oldest boy remarked smirking. Tala returned the smirk, leaving Rei just glaring at both of them. Bryan straightened up from the wall he was leaning against, "Now, we have an important meeting so try to behave," he started heading towards another room connected to the hall, Tala and Rei following close behind. Rei decided the comment was meant for him but was too pissed to argue about it.

In the other room there were two huge couches in the middle of it leaving a coffee table between them. As the three approached the couches, an about middle-aged man stood up, looking at them sharply.

"Good evening," Bryan greeted with such uncharacteristic courtesy Rei had troubles in keeping his eyebrow from rising. It was obvious the lavender-haired boy knew the man they were talking to since he didn't introduce himself. The middle-aged man merely nodded his greetings at Bryan before looking at Tala.

The red-haired boy had taken a civilised look on his face and now he offered his hand in greeting, "Tala Valkov," he said smoothly. The man shook his hand firmly and turned his eyes on Rei.

Rei forced a smile on his face as he nodded, "Rei Kon," The man smirked and turned back to Bryan.

Rei noticed that during their negotiation they never got to know the man's name but he didn't let it bother himself since obviously Bryan and Tala didn't care either. On the other hand though, maybe they knew who he was. After all, they had always been the ones to handle these kinds of things while Kai and Rei did most of the dirty work.

Their negotiation with the man didn't last long and Bryan did most of the talking which Rei was really glad for. Every now and then Tala would say something as did Rei when asked questions. All in all everything seemed to go pretty well. At least the parts that Rei was paying attention to. Perhaps too often he found himself thinking of things that were definitely not suitable for the moment. Like would Kai have liked the party. He would have hated it, Rei decided. Kai had always been a loner and very crowded places had made him feel uncomfortable. But naturally he would have never shown it to anyone. He would have just been the elegant, composed himself acting like a real gentleman until he and Rei would have slunk out without anyone noticing anything.

Rei snapped out of his thoughts, a small smile playing on his lips. Luckily he noticed the others were too concentrated in their discussions they hadn't seen him spacing out. Or perhaps he had this ability to look interested while thinking about something completely different from the subject.

Suddenly Tala and Bryan stood up, obviously planning to leave. Rei quickly followed their example and after shaking the man's hand he followed the two Russians back to the main hall. He had to admit he had no idea whether they had gotten the box sold or not. And frankly, he didn't even care. Now that he had done what was asked for he was perfectly ready to go home.

"Hey um…" Tala and Bryan turned to look at the neko-jin, making him flinch slightly at their cold expressions, "I think I will go home now so…" he managed to say.

Tala raised one of his red eyebrow a bit while a smirk found its way to his lips, "Oh, no you won't," Rei gave him a questioning look. The Russian gave a short laugh, "Eat, drink, meet people… have fun for once," he offered though it sounded more like an order. Rei sighed in defeat. He didn't feel like having fun at all. With a quick glance around the room, he doubted he would even enjoy this party. He didn't even know half the guests and the ones he did know he didn't like or knew they didn't like him. When he eventually looked back at Tala, he found the boy still smirking. Bryan was being his usual cold self.

Then Tala turned his eyes to look past Rei, his smirk broadening slightly. He grabbed the younger boy's arm and started dragging him with him as he made his way to meet some of his old friends, "Oliver!" a young boy with bright green hair turned his face towards them, a little smile rising to his lips.

"Tala, it's been a while," the boy turned to fully face the three approaching boys. So did the person he had been talking to. Tala just nodded at them.

"You've met Bryan," the redhead motioned towards Bryan briefly, getting a nod from both the other boys, "and this is Rei Kon," the hand moved to point at the Chinese boy.

The green-haired boy smiled at Rei, offering his hand in greeting, "Nice to meet you, I'm Oliver," he said as Rei answered the handshake, "and this is Enrique," now the boy tilted his head a bit towards the boy standing beside him.

"So, you're the famous White Tiger," The boy by the name Enrique said.

Rei didn't like this, "Uh… yeah, but it's not–"

"But of course it's a big deal!" Enrique announced, cutting the neko-jin's sentence, "I've heard so much about you, you know…" the blond-haired boy trailed off. Then he suddenly grinned, "It's just impossible to avoid the subject that's on everyone's lips."

Rei blinked, "R- right…" Tala smirked at the uneasiness written all over the boy's features.

That didn't slow the two younger boys down. Now Oliver had gotten a too interested glint in his eyes, "So, is it true that you once jumped down from a ten meters high roof without getting a scratch?"

Rei blinked again, "Well… that's a bit exaggerated…"

Oliver sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, "Thought so…" then he opened his eyes again. Now they had a serious look in them, "Say, there has been a rumour that… your partner is dead. Is that true?"

Rei merely stared at the smaller boy in front of him. So the news had spread already to everyone. After a moment of silence, Rei closed his eyes, "Excuse me," he said before turning on his heels.

"Don't mind him, he's living in denial," the boy heard Tala's smug voice tell the others.

Rei had hardly taken two steps before he came to a halt due to two older-looking boys stepping in front of him. They both were taller than him and they were looking down at him, both having similar, cruel grins plastered across their faces. They also had exactly the same kind of tuxedos on them, except for the other was black and the other pure white. The boy dressed in the black tuxedo had black spiky hair and dark grey eyes that just screamed danger. The other one had long, so light blond hair it was almost white. His eyes were piercing cold shade of yellow and full of cruel amusement.

"My, what did we just hear…" the boy with black hair spoke, amusement colouring his low voice, "I wonder what the Kitten will do now when the legendary Phoenix isn't there to protect him," a low laughter rose from his throat as he raised a hand to cover his mouth. Rei just gazed up at the two in sheer astonishment, not capable to say anything although the words had hurt his pride, as he was sure they were also meant to do.

Then suddenly the two walked past the Chinese boy from both his sides, leaving him between them. The blond one, however, stopped beside him, leaning down close to his ear, "I suggest you watch your back carefully for _someone_ might want to take advantage of this," his dark, husky voice told just loud enough for everyone close enough to hear. Then they were gone, leaving Rei standing there stunned. Had he just been threatened?

"Who-" Rei turned to look at the now beside him standing Tala who looked surprisingly serious. Bryan was nowhere to be seen.

"Elia and Zack (1), or as they like to call themselves, the Sun and the Moon," Tala told without looking at him. He appeared to be deep in his thoughts, "They are pretty new to this field but I've heard they are to be taken seriously," he muttered, "they are described dangerous," now the redhead turned to look at him with the usual smug smirk on his face, "but I highly doubt it."

Rei stared at the Russian for a moment before resuming his movement towards the bar. He really felt like having a few drinks now. However, he never got to the bar since soon there was a hand on his shoulder, turning him around to face Tala once more.

"May I have this dance?" the red-haired boy asked, the smirk still dominating his features. Rei noticed the orchestra had started to play waltz.

"No, I'm going home," the ebony-haired teen said and tried to leave but Tala's hand was still holding him firmly in place.

"No, we're dancing," with this the Russian pulled Rei close to him. Rei sighed but decided that resistance was useless, "You know," Tala's voice drifted quietly into his ear, "you should change that attitude of yours, you hardly smile anymore," Rei raised an eyebrow at the boy. Tala ignored him and pulled him even closer so that the younger boy could feel his breath in his ear, "I'm saying you shouldn't show _them_ your weakness…" now his voice had died into a whisper, "feelings are weakness."

Rei wasn't exactly sure of what Tala was saying, "By them…do you mean the Sun and the Moon?" he asked.

Tala shook his head quickly, "For your own good, please, don't ever let _them_ see how much you miss Kai," Now his whisper was barely audible as he turned around, bringing Rei with him. Now the ebony-haired boy came face to face with Bryan who was standing about twenty meters away from them, his back leaned against the wall casually. Their eyes locked for a moment until Rei was once again swirled around so that Bryan could only see his back now.

Rei looked up at Tala, tying to understand him but the boy's blank expression gave away nothing. The Russian didn't even look at him as he pushed the younger boy away, turning his back on him, "Now, you can go if you wish to," then he disappeared into the crowd. Rei turned around to find that Bryan was also gone.

Rei had to admit he hadn't expected Tala to warn him like that. Then again, Tala had always been a bit difficult to understand. At least Rei was now free to go home and he was also very willing to do so.

* * *

(1) I added my own characters, Elia and Zack, here for I really couldn't see any of the Beyblade characters in those roles. But no worries people, they won't have that big a part in the story, they are here mostly to support the plot. Hopefully you don't mind them. Oh and, they are mine and therefore not to be stolen!

A/N: Thanks for reading, now please review :).


	5. With Blood Adorned

A/N: Thank you all for reading and especially those who bothered leaving a review :). I'm glad you accepted my OC:s. I hope you don't mind the flashbacks, too. There are going to be a couple of them in this chapter again and also in the later ones since I'm planning to deepen the characters and the storyline via flashbacks.

Disclaimer: I own neither the Beyblade characters nor the song 'I Was Made for Loving You' by Kiss. Everything else is mine and not to be stolen without my permission.

Warnings: bad language, violence.

* * *

It was hot. Rei usually liked warmth but this was too much of it even for him. They were currently somewhere in the south coast of Spain and the car they were sitting in was easily comparable with an oven. Rei felt his head spinning and tried to cool himself by drinking water but even the water was warm so it didn't help that much. The boy reached out his hand to turn on the fan. His hand was stopped by Tala's moving it back away from the dashboard. The Chinese boy shot an accusing look towards the redhead who didn't even look very bothered by the heat.

"The fan annoys me," the Russian stated and turned the steering wheel sharply to the right, making the car take an equally sharp right turn. Rei had to tighten his grip on his seat as he didn't want to fall over onto the floor. Tala was driving way too fast. Rei decided to never let him drive again.

"But it's so hot…" the ebony-haired boy whined.

Tala rolled his eyes, "You should have thought that before you put so much clothes on," he said matter-of-factly.

"But I've never been to Spain before! How was I supposed to know it's this hot," Rei tried to defend himself though he knew very well he had caused this all by himself. He slid down on his seat, wishing they would arrive to their destination soon, "So, why does Boris even want this stupid stone?"

Tala chuckled slightly at the boy's extremely bored yet irritated tone, "The stones. There are five of them," he said, gaining a raised eyebrow from his new partner, "oh, not all of them are in Spain, just one."

Rei snorted and gripped the seat once more as Tala made a superfluously sharp turn with the car, making Rei's water bottle roll on the floor, "Could you slow down a bit?" he snapped at the older teen, "You're fucking going to kill us…" he muttered.

"When did you become so foulmouthed?" Rei could see Tala wasn't too interested in getting the answer as he had busied himself with flipping radio channels, having hard time on finding one that would actually please him. Rei found himself hoping Tala would at least watch the road as he drove. Soon some music that Rei didn't recognise was floating off the player in much too high volume. It was giving the neko-jin a headache, "And no, I won't drive slower," Tala informed suddenly with a smug smirk on his face, making Rei sigh and close his eyes, just hoping he would make it alive back to Russia.

"So, do you know about the stones or what?" he asked in a defeated tone, not opening his eyes.

"No. All I know is that they have something to do with the box," the red-haired boy explained. Now Rei opened his eyes to look at the boy.

"The box we sold a couple of weeks ago?" Tala nodded, "But we sold it," Rei insisted.

Now Tala laughed, "Yeah," he glanced at the puzzled expression on the younger boy's face, his smirk broadening, "hey don't look at me, I'm not the one to run this thing." Rei knew he was right. The boy turned his head to look out the window though it was dark since it was in the middle of the night. He gave up trying to view the landscape and closed his eyes, leaning his head against the back of his seat. Faintly he heard that the radio had started playing 'I Was Made for Loving You' by Kiss.

Rei could almost hear Tala smirk that infamous, extremely self-satisfied smirk of his, "Aww, come on Rei, don't be so sour. Sing along…

_Flashback_

…_I know you know the words," Tala encouraged cheerfully, turning up the volume of his CD player. Rei looked up from the bed he was sitting on. Kai's bed. His own was on the other side of the room. It could have been Tala's room as well since he spent much more of his time in there than in the room he shared with Bryan. _

_Rei smiled as Tala and Kai grabbed each others' hands and started pouncing around with their eight-year-olds' enthusiasm, singing at the top of their voices 'I Was Made for Loving You' by Kiss._

_Kai paused only to grab Rei's hand as the two older boys jumped past where the youngest was sitting. Rei soon found himself pouncing around with them, his other hand holding Kai's and the other one Tala's. _

_A grin made itself at home on Rei's face and he joined his friends in screaming out the words of the familiar song. He knew – they all knew – Boris would kill them if he found out about their little party but right now they didn't care since they were having so much fun. _

_All of a sudden Rei's sensitive ears heard the door open. He stopped and so did the others, turning their gazes in the direction the Chinese boy was looking at. Bryan stood at the door, looking at them with that usual emotionless expression plastered across his face. _

"_Oh please," was all the lavender-haired boy said before turning on his heels and leaving the room. Tala and Kai just stared after him while Rei went to turn the CD player off. Bryan wouldn't tell Boris, they knew that._

_End flashback_

Rei opened his eyes and gazed at Tala who was now drumming his fingers on the steering wheel while humming to the song silently. Tala had changed so much from the times they were little. Yet sometimes he would act exactly as he did back then. Rei couldn't figure him out. Tala noticed Rei's gaze and gave him a raised eyebrow asking the silent question.

"Oh please," Rei muttered and turned back to the window.

"Now you're starting to sound like Bryan," Tala remarked monotonously, obviously not very impressed with the lack of interest Rei was directing towards him. The Chinese teen chose not to say anything and kept on staring at the night outside.

Only a few minutes later the car stopped, "We're here," Tala informed coldly before stepping out the vehicle. Rei followed his lead and grabbed his bag before joining the Russian boy to continue by foot. They didn't park the car too near their target since it would have been just plain stupid. Rei didn't mind to walk though, it wasn't so hot out there than it had been in the car and he could see perfectly well in the darkness so that didn't bother him either.

They didn't have to walk long to reach their destination: an extremely expensive-looking summer house with a huge pool and everything. Fortunately to them, there was no one living in there at the moment.

Despite the luxury of the house, it was almost ridiculously easy for the two young criminals to break in. Tala agreed to keep watch outside while Rei would carry out the almost as ridiculously easy mission to get the little stone. What made it so easy? Well, the owners of the house had no idea of the true value of the object so it wouldn't be hid very well. Rei presumed it would probably be mounted into some ornament.

The Chinese boy turned on the little radar he had with him. The stone was supposed to radiate with some specific form of energy that the radar was specially programmed to find. As soon as the small device was on, a little red dot started flashing on the screen, telling Rei he wasn't too far from the target.

Rei advanced soundlessly through the luxurious rooms and hallways until he came to a bit smaller, very cosy looking room with a huge fireplace on one wall. Despite the darkness, the neko-jin's sharp eyes spotted a clock on the edge of the fireplace. Very expensive-looking clock at that. He moved to it and observed it carefully, finding four little, black stones placed on each four corners of the object. He raised his quietly peeping radar, sliding it across the clock. The peeping fastened on one of the stones while the others caused no effect on the device at all. Rei decided this had to be the stone he was looking for.

The boy fished out some tools from his bag and neatly removed the stone, equally neatly replacing it with a very believable yet worthless copy. Rei smirked, almost feeling sorry for the clueless owners of the house. Now their fancy clock wasn't worth a crap.

After finishing his task, Rei returned to where he had left Tala. However, just as he turned a corner to the hallway that led to the main door, he heard a sharp sound of glass shattering.

_Flashback_

_Tala lay on the floor surrounded by splinters of glass. Some of them were covered in blood just like the boy himself. He didn't move. _

_Rei waited until Boris had walked away. Then he ran up to his friend, "Tala!" He tried to touch him but the Russian grabbed his hand, holding it back. _

"_Don't," The redhead moved away, shivering slightly. Rei watched him with tears in his amber eyes. He could see the boy was in pain. But Tala didn't cry. By the age of eleven, he had learned not to cry. _

"_But you're hurt," Rei whispered. _

_Tala looked at him sadly, "Yeah," he shivered again, "I'll be fine in a few days," after saying that, the boy fainted. _

_Rei shot up from his spot on the floor, "Kai!" he screamed as he ran to the now unconscious Russian. Soon he heard Kai's running steps approaching. _

_End flashback_

Rei had instinctively raised up his arm to cover his face from the splinters. His arm was stinging with pain and he felt blood run down his skin. He lowered the arm to his side and looked at a dark, motionless form on the floor in a growing pool of crimson liquid. He cautiously made his way closer to it and gasped as he recognised it to be Tala.

"Tala," he whispered and reached out a shaking hand to touch the boy. His hand stopped midway as he heard glass crushing under shoes. Rei quickly raised his head to find two tall boys standing outside the broken window. The Sun and the Moon. The former was observing the damages of the house with a small frown on his face while the latter had fixed his piercing glare on Rei. Again the two were complete opposites of each other, the Sun wearing completely white while the Moon's outfit was black as the night around them. The collar of the long, white coat the blond one was wearing was slightly stained with blood and the boy offhandedly wiped some of the same substance off the corner of his mouth. The dark-haired boy on the other hand had a big bruise on his left cheek and his coat was ripped up a bit.

"Hn, Zack, you broke the house…" the blond muttered before turning to look at his partner. Then his yellow eyes flicked towards Rei who was now standing, "Ah, good evening," he greeted politely. Rei merely clenched his fists. The blond-haired boy tilted his head a bit to his left, "Not very talkative, are we? Oh well, but this is Zachary and I am Elia, pleased to meet you," now the boy flashed him a smile that immediately turned into a smirk.

Now Zack smirked too, "We believe you have something of ours," he said and looked at Tala, "at least your partner didn't have it…" he trailed off. Rei glanced at Tala. He still hadn't moved. Fear crept its way up Rei's spine. What if he was dead? He couldn't stand losing another important friend. Even if he couldn't say they had been friends in years anymore.

"You will not get it without a fight," Rei said as he turned his gaze back to the two in front of him, anger colouring his soft voice.

"Very well then," Zack said, turning his back on Rei, "let's take it outside and not damage the house more than we already have."

"_You_ have," Rei corrected and followed the boys to the empty swimming pool.

Elia chuckled, "Hey Zack, isn't it kind of unfair to go two against one?"

The addressed boy threw a quick smile at his partner, "Everything is fair in war and love, my dear," then he turned to Rei, "and this is obviously the former one."

Rei raised an eyebrow, "It seems you didn't think it was unfair to beat up my partner with superior force earlier."

Elia snickered a bit, "Yeah well, he proved himself to be tougher than we had thought," he glanced at Rei, "you on the other hand though…"

Rei felt the anger in him rising again, "Don't underestimate me," he hissed. The Sun and the Moon both smirked at him, "You think you're better than me? Then show me what you've got," the neko-jin invited.

"Gladly," Zack accepted, jumping towards him so quickly Rei hardly managed to dodge his fist. The younger boy in return let his fist to get to know the other boy's abdomen, making the victim fall onto the ground on his knees, his arms wrapped around the sore area.

Before Rei could send another hit towards the black-haired boy, there was Elia's foot contacting with his chest, making him fly a few meters backwards. Elia jumped after him, grabbing the boy from the ground and throwing him roughly against a wall. Rei groaned quietly as the air escaped his lungs. Elia walked over to him with unnecessarily slow pace and lifted him up, wrapping his fingers around his neck as he pinned the boy up against the wall. His other hand he drew back intending to send a well-directed hit to the boy's face.

Rei's reflexes, however, were too quick for the attacker to see and therefore he managed to kick the boy away, dive behind him and finally take his turn to kick the opponent against the wall. Quickly the Chinese teen jumped on the older boy, straddling his waist and starting to hit him furiously. He could taste blood in his mouth and his whole body was aching.

Rei had completely forgotten about Zack until the boy was suddenly behind him, taking hold of his waist before shoving him straight to the bottom of the empty pool. Rei let out a little cry of pain as his right arm twisted and a crack was heard. Soon he had Zack sitting on top of him, flashing him that complacent smirk of his.

"I noticed the Kitten has claws but unfortunately they are not sharp enough," he said softly and leaned down, grabbing Rei's both wrists in his tight grip, making the boy cry out in agony. Then he released the unbroken hand but tightened his hold on the broken one, making the boy numb with pain, unable to fight back. Rei started slowly feeling dazed, the pain waving through his body almost unbearable.

Just when Rei was sure he would lose consciousness, he heard a revolting sound of a sharp weapon sinking into his lower abdomen followed by another wave of pain running through his body. A silent groan escaped his lips.

"Oops, I cheated," Rei could hear that Zack was smirking, "now, let's see what we have here," the older boy's hand snaked into Rei's pocket, fishing out a little box Rei had put the stone into, "thank you very much for your co-operation," he said solemnly before leaning down close to Rei's ear. The Chinese boy felt the weapon being twisted in his wound. He couldn't help wincing, "It hurts, doesn't it?" Zachary whispered.

Then he was up, pulling the dagger out of Rei's abdomen painfully slowly.

"See you later… perhaps," this voice belonged to Elia whom Rei hadn't even heard joining them on the bottom of the swimming pool. Then there were their footsteps moving away before a car drove off the yard.

At the last moment of his consciousness, Rei heard a faint clink of a bell and soft, running steps approaching. He forced his eyes open to see something white and blue through the haze blurring his vision. Then he was swallowed by the darkness.

* * *

A/N: Please review, it would mean the world to me :). 


	6. Losing the Ground And Falling Faster

A/N: Here's an update, please forgive me for taking so long with it. The next one might take some time, too, because I have some very important exams coming up in a few weeks and I actually should study a bit although I find writing much more interesting. Oh well… life's a bitch.

Yeah, and thanks for the reviews again, it really makes me happy to know someone actually enjoys my work :). Keep it up, guys!

Disclaimer: I don't think I actually need to put this in every single chapter because I still don't own anything save for my own characters and the storyline.

Warnings: Shounen-ai, bad language.

* * *

Rei's eyes slowly fluttered open as he woke up. The pain was gone and all he had was this strange feeling of burning. The fire didn't hurt but it felt… unnatural. He felt unnatural. He raised his right arm cautiously, waiting for the wave of pain to come but it never came. He frowned and brought his hand to feel his abdomen, feeling absolutely nothing. No trace of the wound was left. He wondered it if it had all been just a bad dream.

"The burning should stop soon," a mutter told him from somewhere in the room. Rei recognised the voice. He quickly sat up, scanning the room with his eyes, his gaze landing on a dark form on the floor next to his wardrobe. The boy gulped and threw his legs over the edge of his bed, standing up. Only now he really noticed being in his own house.

He never let his eyes leave the motionless form curled up in the corner as he made his way slowly towards it, stopping in front of it. He tilted his head as he watched it, seeing only a great amount of black feathers, "Uh… excuse me?" he wasn't sure if that was the right thing to say at the moment but it was all he could come up with.

Suddenly the figure started to move. Two huge, dark wings opened and Rei couldn't help the gasp that escaped his lips as he met two marvellous orbs burning with demonic crimson fire. Rei brought a hand to cover his mouth as his legs gave way and he fell to sit on the floor.

"K- Kai?" he whispered, not trusting his voice enough to speak louder.

"Please don't be afraid of me," Kai whispered in return, startling Rei. Why would he be afraid of him? Rei shook his head rapidly and felt tears starting to run down his cheeks freely. Kai gave him a small, sad smile and reached out his hand to wipe away the tears, "Don't cry," his voice was so soft, so apologetic.

Rei leaned in to the touch, "Am I… dead?" Kai merely shook his head. Rei blinked, "Then how come you're–" he didn't finish the sentence as his eyes slowly moved to look at the black wings attached to his lover's back. He felt his eyes widening in realisation, "Are you… an angel?" Now Kai looked away, obviously wanting to avoid the subject. Rei narrowed his eyes, suddenly feeling very stubborn, "Then you are the one who saved me last nigh?" He got a nod for an answer, encouraging him to go on, "But you had white wings back then," his voice turned into a whisper as the memory of last night flooded into his mind. Rei didn't fail to see Kai freezing momentarily.

"I…" the slate-haired boy was still avoiding Rei's eyes, "have committed some… sins," the sad expression returned to his face.

Rei frowned, "What sins?"

The angel looked at him now, "Don't worry about it," his voice told the subject was dropped. Then he moved closer to the younger boy with somewhat supernatural grace, "I'm sorry," he whispered against Rei's lips before kissing him softly, making Rei feel strange, stinging electricity running through his body. Nonetheless, he answered the kiss, feeling the tears start to gather in his eyes once more. He couldn't believe what was happening. He couldn't believe Kai was actually there and… he pulled away, a cold shiver running down his spine. Was it all just a dream?

"Kai?" The angel had lowered his head, the slate-coloured strands falling to hide his eyes, "Is this a dream?" Rei asked, somewhat afraid of getting the answer.

"I wish it was," Kai whispered so quietly Rei wouldn't have heard it if he wasn't a neko-jin.

Rei bit his lip and took hold of Kai's chin, forcing the boy to look at him. His eyes still held the heartbreaking misery that made Rei's heart ache, "What's wrong?" Kai shook his head, "Kai, please, tell me," the Chinese boy pleaded.

"I'm sorry you have to go through all this," Kai whispered, again avoiding the subject. Then he stood up.

Rei stood up, too, "Are you leaving?" Kai nodded and turned but Rei grabbed his arm, stopping him, "Don't, please," the boy was crying again.

Kai turned to look at the smaller boy, his heart threatening to fall into pieces. This was because he was an angel and angels experienced feelings stronger than humans could even imagine. He was in so much pain for seeing the boy he loved like that. He turned fully towards the neko-jin and pulled him close to him.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered, fighting back the tears trying to form into his own eyes, "I love you so much,"

"Th- then don't leave me again, I can't make it without you," Rei sobbed into his shirt, clutching the fabric in his hands as if his life was depending on it.

Kai sighed, "Of course you can," he held the boy tighter, "you are strong, Rei, don't ever forget that."

Rei shook his head, "Why can't you stay with me?"

Now the angel stepped back, turning his gaze away again, "You are a mortal while I am an angel," he explained, his voice suddenly cold and distant, "I shouldn't even let you see me," he shuddered a bit after saying that. Rei found himself frowning for probably the tenth time that day as he tried to approach his lover. Or former lover. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to call Kai. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to think about the whole situation. Everything seemed so ridiculous in a way. Kai stepped back again, out of reach, "Don't touch me," the warning came out colder than he had originally intended.

Rei bit his lip, suppressing a sob, "I- I'm…" he closed his mouth, knowing he would break down if he continued. He took another step closer to the other boy who in turn stepped back, coming to a dead end with his back against the wall.

Kai clenched his fists, "I mean it… stay back," his voice was now softer and it was obvious he found it difficult to stand behind his own words.

Rei tilted his head to his right, "Why?" He could taste blood in his mouth. He had bit through his lip.

"You will only hurt yourself," Kai said quietly, his eyes glued to Rei's, "I'm not human," the last bit came in a pained whisper.

Although Rei heard what the other said, he couldn't stop himself as he moved closer, bringing his lips up to Kai's. The electric sensation returned. It took Kai a short while to start responding and when he finally did, Rei had to grab a hold of his shoulders to actually prevent himself from pulling away. The stinging was stronger, making his lips hurt slightly. The Chinese boy couldn't help the groan that escaped as a fiery wave ran though his lips. Then Kai pushed him away so forcefully his back hit the edge of his bed and he fell to sit on the floor again. After a few seconds of heavy silence, Rei raised his right hand up, his fingers grazing his bottom lip, which was as smooth as ever. The small wound was gone.

Rei raised up his head to see that Kai was still leaning against the wall, his head bowed and his arms hanging on his sides, his fingers trying to dig through the wall, "I'm sorry," Kai whispered, not looking up.

"Why are you here?" Rei asked.

"I wanted to make sure you're all right," was Kai's monotonous reply, "obviously you are," now the boy looked up but avoided Rei, directing his eyes towards the window on the opposite wall.

Rei bit his lip again, looking down at the floor, "What about Tala?" he asked as the memory of the redhead covered in blood flooded back in his mind, making him cringe slightly.

"He's alive," Kai answered, "but he may have a brain damage," he added, making Rei snap his head up.

"Wh- what?" the younger boy stuttered with wide eyes.

Now the angel turned his eyes towards the smaller boy, "I don't know," he shifted his position a bit, "you should sleep," it sounded more like an order than a proposal. Rei merely nodded, feeling too numb to even try to protest. Besides, he really was tired. Tired of all this crap. The boy stood up and climbed onto his bed, diving under the covers.

"Will you be here when I wake up?" he asked sleepily.

"No," he heard Kai's reply just before he fell asleep.

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_A ten-year-old boy ran down the empty halls of the abbey, rounding yet another corner. He was heaving slightly but it didn't slow him down. Cold rays of the morning sun came through the huge windows, making the few pieces of furniture cast long, threatening shadows around the boy. _

_The boy stumbled on his steps and fell down, immediately rising up to his feet again. His head was throbbing with pain and he knew his forehead was bleeding. _

_Suddenly there was another boy with him in the hall, "Tala!" _

"_Kai," the boy choked out, yet again tripping to the floor, "Where's Rei?" _

_Now the other boy was beside him, pulling him up to his feet, "By the spring," Kai said, observing his friend with a frown, "What happened to you?"_

_Tala looked up at the slate-haired boy, fear evident in his ice-blue eyes, "Bryan has lost his mind," he took in a heavy breath, "he said he's going to kill Rei." _

_Kai's eyes widened slightly, "What?" his question was barely a whisper._

_Tala nodded, prying Kai's hands off his shoulders, "We have to find them," with this he sped off again, this time heading for the forest behind the abbey. He heard Kai's running steps following him. _

_Outside the boys were greeted by the cold winter of Russia. Everything was pure and white and the snow reflected the sunrays making the whole landscape look so very beautiful. The only thing that broke the illusion was the footprints disappearing to the forest. Tala felt his heart skip a beat as he realised they belonged to Bryan. They were almost covered by the slowly falling snow. It meant it had been a while already since the older boy had been there. The redhead fastened his pace, hoping he wasn't too late. Kai did the same a few meters behind him. _

_They ran towards the place they knew Rei loved most in the whole world, pushing aside branches and little bushes. Suddenly a bloodcurdling scream cut the air, causing both the boys to stop dead, their eyes darting frantically about. The footprints had already faded, leaving them only guessing which way they should continue. _

"_Rei!" Kai yelled._

_Another scream was heard, "Bryan, don't!" Kai turned to his right and continued running towards the voice, "Kai! Help me!" Rei's desperate plea carried through the snowy forest. Tala sped after the other Russian, his heart pounding uncontrollably. He had never been this afraid in his life._

Tala sat up with a sharp gasp, only to fall back down onto the bed. He was covered in cold sweat and his face was wet from freshly shed tears. His head was pounding with headache and he felt like he couldn't breathe. For a moment he just lay there, shivering and gasping for air. The suffocating feeling didn't want to leave him and he found himself unable to stop crying. He couldn't remember when had been the last time he had cried. He hadn't even remembered what it felt like to cry.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Wha- what the… hell?" the boy gasped. The fear from his dream refused to go away, leaving the boy struggling with this unwanted emotion that he hadn't experienced in so many years. He hadn't even remembered what it was like to actually feel. Truthfully, he hadn't been able to feel anything after a certain operation years ago. Now all the emotions were flooding back to him, making him tremble helplessly. All the happiness he had felt for having Kai and Rei as his friends years ago. All the hate for Bryan when he had hurt Rei and finally all the hate for himself for all the awful things he had done during the years. For the first time Tala really understood what he had done. He had killed Kai, his best friend from childhood. And he hadn't felt anything.

Tala jolted up to sit again, screaming at the top of his lungs. He ignored the aching of his back and the cuts all over his body that were now opening again. The inner pain was too much to bear. He fell back to the bed once more, thrashing around.

"No… go away… leave me alone!" the boy sobbed, clutching the sheets desperately.

Suddenly the door to the room slammed open and someone strode in, slamming the door shut after them, "Tala!" a cold voice called, demanding his attention.

Tala felt a hand on his arm but pried it off quickly, falling off the bed, "No!" he screamed, "Don't touch me," he crawled over the floor to a corner and curled up in a ball, hugging his legs while rocking back and forth, heavy shudders shaking his pathetic form.

"Tala, pull yourself together," the cold voice demanded as the owner of it walked over to the boy in the corner, pulling him up forcefully. Tala tried to fight back, struggling and screaming to be freed, "Stop it!" A slap around the face made the red-haired boy stop struggling and finally he just stood there, sobbing and shaking, not able to stand without the other boy supporting him.

"Bry- Bryan… I think I- I'm broken," he choked, not looking at the older Russian.

"Yes," Bryan's voice was calm but it was obvious he was angry, "I will find a way to fix you," he promised, grabbing Tala's left arm. This time the redhead didn't fight back but let the lavender-haired boy push a needle through his skin, "Until then this will have to do," Tala felt some cold liquid mix with his blood. Then the needle was pulled out of his skin and he leaned forward against Bryan's strong chest, still trembling violently.

"I don't want this," Tala whispered, his legs threatening to give way. Bryan didn't respond but tightened his grip on the younger boy's shoulders.

Eventually Tala stopped shivering and the tears dried off.

"Are you all right?" Bryan asked after a while, his tone telling he wasn't really interested but just wanted to break the silence.

Tala let a hollow smile surface, "Yeah," and he didn't lie. He honestly felt fine. He felt nothing. There was once again the empty space in his heart. The emotions were gone, clearing his conscience. The headache, however, was still present. And the fact that his back was aching as well as his bleeding wounds, "Can you fix me?" he asked as Bryan helped him back to the bed. If there was only one thing he was sure of it was the fact that he didn't want the emotions back. Not after all these years and all the horrible things he had done.

"I'm not sure," Bryan said honestly as he stepped back and leaned against the wall, "the doctor is dead and no one else actually knows how the surgery was performed."

Tala sighed and closed his eyes, "How did this happen?"

"Something in your brain damaged but it only caused… this," Bryan went quiet.

They both remained silent for a while until Tala suddenly laughed briefly, "This is so fucking amazing," the sarcasm in his voice was so thick it could have been cut with a knife.

"Hn," was all Bryan said before exiting the room and closing the door behind him in a bit more composed fashion than earlier.

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End file.
